I'll take the 18 MPG if I could have gotten it.
Way to go!

 

Nope. Nope. Nope. Your front bearings are going to fall apart unless you have the cv bolting the Hub together. And removing the front diff parts will net you a driveline parasitic drag gain of not having to spin 2 carrier bearings. The driveline drag is the same or more with one diff as it is with 2 diffs splitting the work. I had the front shaft out of my rr and the only difference I noticed was the police waking me up at 4 in the morning asking me how my truck was in the middle of the street in Park. (center viscous diff allowed the truck to roll down hill at 3 ft an hour) absolutely 0 change in mileage. And that's taking all the tire scrubbing center diff drag out of the equation.

 

Yeah, but I bet it got great mpg all the way to the park

 

Thanks. I will recheck the hub torque, the surgery was 4000+ miles ago, as I do not play in the mud nor snow. Ever.
Stock wheel shafts removed for full reversibility to 4wd at any moment, donor shafts without the hub ends for the 2 wheel drive conversion, and front driveshaft.
----> http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/s...t/P1000958.jpg

CV tips in place, (the only way to keep the hub together), central differential always locked, rubber plugs in the front differential holes, so no dirt gets in.
----> http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/s...P1000956-1.jpg

Edited - This is the 4'x8' trailer:
----> http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/s...pse0c19b0b.jpg

The return trip will also be pulling the trailer trough the Appalachians range, so will not be able to hit the confident 20+ mpg to report to the forum. But one of these days...

 

C&p

11-10-2007 12:26 PM by Disco Mike
RE: Overdrive after market...
Droping the RPM's won't improve mileage unless you are able to reset your whole power and torque curve.
Your rpm's aren't that high, mine are higher and I get nearly 18.5 on the road at 65 with my a/c off at 7000 feet here in Colorado.
If you want better mileage, think of things to do to your engine to tune some more mileage out of her.
What octane gas are you running, have you changed out your 02 sensors, how about your plug wires?
What sort of mileage are you getting now?
Based on our 4.0 engine size, low horse power and weight along with our already high 3:54 gears, you are looking in the wrong direction.

 

Don't know if the DII's are the same as the D1, but I've been getting 15mpg on the last few tanks of gas, using regular unleaded, combo of city/highway driving. I doubt I'd get 18mpg towing a trailer with removing the front wheel drive parts. And what's the point of removing all the front wheel drive stuff anyway?!

I have a 4x6 utility trailer, home built with a Chevy I-beam axle and 15" alloy wheels with 235/70 tires. I would expect the mpg to drop towing that thing, loaded with several hundred pounds of stuff, so maybe 12-13mpg at best?

Good that you got 18mpg towing a trailer, but without all the front wheel drive stuff, what's the point?

 

Interesting, was under the impression car would not run without front drive shaft.

Blew my front shaft months ago, car did not move without it. Rear was fine.

 

If you lock the t-case it will.


Also, I've gotten around 17mpg towing a little boat trailer at about 65mph on 245/75r16 Michelin A/t's on trip from Las Vegas, Nevada to Pine Valley, Utah.

 

And soon OffRoadFrance will tell us what great fuel economy a diesel gets!
Just kidding If I want better fuel economy, I'll get a Freelander.

 

Yeah you'll get around 24mpg until it explodes.